Friday, 29 July 1988

BRAZIL July/August 1988: Orgaos & Itatiaia

In 1987 I met the late, greatly missed, Bruce Forrester on Scilly and we got talking
about Brazil where he had been several times and was producing a very helpful site guide.
He gave me some excellent information and Nick Preston and I decided to visit in summer 1988 despite the lack of a decent
field guide and the Portuguese language being a potential problem. Bruce was returning to Brazil at the same time and we arranged to meet up with him and others for a few days while we were there. This blog is put together from hazy recollections and inadequate
notebook entries along with scanned slides of variable quality. Hopefully it gives a flavour of the
trip. Despite no Andes the areas of Brazil
that we visited were much more impressive scenically than I’d anticipated, the
language less of a problem -not that we understood a word of it - and the people friendlier.

We got tickets with Varig through Journey
Latin America who also spent a lot of time booking internal flights for us on a
three-week airpass which started after our first week was spent in driving
distance of Rio. We left Heathrow on 22
July on the overnight flight to Rio via Lisbon.

23 July.
We arrived in Rio de Janeiro at 6am.
Unexpectedly there was no Cambio at the airport, just lots of
money-changers hanging around rather dubiously outside. We changed money behind a pillar outside the
airport and would have been easy marks for a dishonest money changer given that
both old and new cruzieros appeared to be in circulation with the latter worth
1000x more. We hired smallest car available
and headed to Serra dos Orgaos, near Teresopolis, an easy drive to start with as
we didn’t need to go into Rio to get there.
We arrive mid morning and spent the rest of day in the North Section of
the National Park, staying in a hotel nearby.
Birds seen included Swallow-tailed
Manakin, Giant and Large-tailed Antshrikes, White-shouldered Fire-eye and
Drab-breasted Pigmy-Tyrant.

unusual rock formations in Serra dos Orgaos National Park

24 July. We spent most of the day in the South Section
of Serra dos Orgaos seeing White-barred
Piculet, Blod-crested Woodpecker, Sharp-tailed Streamcreeper, Spot-breasted
Antvireo, Star-throated Antwren, Black-cheeked Gnateater (superb),
Bare-throated Bellbird, Swallow-tailed Manakin, White-throated Spadebill and
Red-necked Tanager. Leaving Orgaos late
afternoon we drove through Rio and south to Itatiaia were we arrived after
dark We readily found a hotel in town
just outside the entrance to the National Park.

25 July. We entered the park at dawn and spent all day
on the Maromba Bridge Trail, walking up to the zig-zags and back. We returned to Hotel Uhu at dusk. Birds seen included Reddish-bellied Parakeet, Robust Woodpecker, Scaled Woodcreeper,
Sharp-billed Treehunter, Rufous-backed Antwren, Swallow-tailed Manakin,
Shear-tailed Grey-Tyrant, Yellow-lored and Ochre-faced Tody-Flycatchers,
Brassy-breasted, Diademed, Ruby-crowned and Rufous-headed Tanagers and
Black-throated Grosbeak.

lowland forest in Itatiaia National Park

Blue-billed Black-Tyrant

Velvety Black-Tyrant

Red-rumped Warbling-Finch, looking and behaving more like an exotic warbler than a finch

27 July. We set off to visit the upper section of the
park, reached by driving around to Eng Passos and entering from the far
side. We started off in a dry valley 6km
NW of Eng Passos but I soon realised I’d left my moneybelt under my pillow in the
hotel, I was sure it would be OK, or if not that returning would be too late,
but it was playing heavily on my mind so we returned to the hotel anyway. There it was waiting for me and feeling quite relieved we then spent the rest of the day on the Tres Picos Trail. Birds seen included Ash-throated Crake, Surucua Trogon, White-eared Puffbird (brilliant),
Rufous Hornero, Ferruginous, Rufous-tailed and Ochre-rumped Antbirds, Rufous
Gnateater (also brilliant), Wied’s Tyrant-Manakin, Swallow-tailed and Black-capped
Manakins, Streamer-tailed and Yellow-browed Tyrants, Golden-winged Cacique,
Chestnut-bellied Euphonia, Guilt-edged and Olive-Green Tanagers and Ultramarine
Grosbeak. Another superb day despite
my moneybelt scare.

Eng Passos

Streamer-tailed Tyrant

White-eared Puffbirds

brilliant birds

male Suruca Trogon

28 July. We set off again to visit the upper section
of the park but this time I made sure I had my moneybelt! We concentrated on the top road which was
mainly open moorland with isolated forest patches and gulleys. Birds seen included Brown Tinamou, White-vented Violetear, Campo Flicker, Itatiaia
Spinetail, Sharp-tailed Streamcreeper, Rufous-tailed Antthrush, Rufous
Gnateater, Thick-billed Saltator, Bay-breasted Warbling-Finch and Great Pampa
Finch. Returned to Hotel Uhu after
another long day.

Itatiaia National Park

above the clouds

Diadamed Tanager

Rufous-collared Sparrow

Rufous-bellied Thrush

Itatiaia Spinetail

White-spotted Woodpecker

White-striped Warbler

Rufous-tailed Antthrush

we found five in the remnant forest patches

29 July. Our last day at Itatiaia and we concentrated
on the Maromba Waterfall and Hotel Simon Trails. The Waterfall Trail was
particularly good producing a superb Variegated Antpitta and 4 Rufous
Gnateaters. We also saw Rufous-capped Motmot, Black-capped
Foliage-Gleaner, Sharp-tailed Streamcreeper, Star-throated Antwren,
Rufous-tailed Antthrush and Green-headed Tanager. On the drive back to Rio we were flagged down
by a lone traffic cop. He searched the
car and seeing we were tourists refused to accept my International Driving
Licence. I suspect he couldn’t read it
properly, despite my having deliberately got the variant required for Brazil
which had a Portuguese page in it. He
was insistent that we should have had a box on it ticked so after another 10
minutes of playing dumb (easy to do with no common language) I reached into my
top pocket. His piggy eyes were clearly
expecting a bribe so when I produced a pencil and offered to tick the box he
almost had a seizure. A bit more playing
dumb and he got the message, or his shift was coming to an end, and with rather
bad grace he let us go. We later heard
it was a known route for shaking down tourists heading back to Rio to catch a
flight. We were fortunate that time was
on our side as ours didn’t leave until the next morning. Once back at the airport we returned the car
and found a quiet lounge to sleep in. Our first week in Brazil had produced 100
new birds for me.